How do I get rid of religious obsessive-compulsive disorder? Psychology will help you

You have started the prayer, and you have reached the third rak’ah of the afternoon prayer, but you do not know precisely: are you in the second or the third rak’ah really?!

You do not know what to do, so you decide to repeat the prayer again, but you forgot if you were on ablution or if you lost your ablution now, so you must repeat both ablution and prayer again!

It may be that neither prayer nor ablution is your personal problem, it may be those doctrinal doubts that invade your thinking compulsively and coercively. You are still a believer and want to believe.

Has anything like this ever happened to you before?

In fact, you are not alone in this, as all human beings have some doubts about the practice of some devotional rites or rituals with certain rules.

Forgetting a rak’ah during prayer, or not remembering whether you were in ablution or not. These are normal things, and they may occur for different reasons other than waswasah, such as anxiety, lack of concentration, lack of sleep…etc.

However, the problem is when this behavior stems from an obsession that keeps a person feeling guilty and suspicious of his religious performance frequently, and spoils a person's ability to focus on anything else.

In psychology, this falls under the concept of "religious obsessions" or what is called in English "Scrupulosity".

In this article, we address this concept from different angles, in terms of its definition, types and extent of its prevalence, before we address the position of Islamic jurisprudence on it, and we give you some practical steps that may greatly help in overcoming religious obsessions and getting rid of these compulsive obsessions and involuntary nodal doubts that invade your thinking Without your will or desire.

What you should know about religious obsessive-compulsive disorder and religious obsessive-compulsive disorder

In order to explain religious waswas, we must first explain the meaning of waswas.

Obsessions in psychology are uncontrollable recurring, parasitic, obsessive thoughts, thoughts, tendencies, or images (one tries to resist them and often fails), even though one knows that they are not logical and is aware that they are not true or correct thinking or doing (1).

Obsessions are the first step in the cycle of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), which consists of obsessions followed by anxiety, and then compulsions to relieve this anxiety;

What frees a person only temporarily from his anxiety, before he returns to the same obsessions not long after.

As for religious obsessions, they are defined as obsessions that relate to thoughts, feelings, behaviors, rituals and religious topics, whatever they are.

A large part of it falls within the scope of obsessive-compulsive disorder in psychiatry (2).

It is important to note here that describing it as religious does not mean that it arises from or necessarily because of religion, but rather that it is related to it as an object.

Religious obsessions can be related to devotional behaviors or related to ideas and beliefs.

If obsessions are doctrinal, then it must be carefully differentiated here from doubt and questioning as a natural human condition and linked to cognitive or emotional questions.

Obsessiveness is an extreme state of doubt and parasitic thoughts that clearly possess a person without being able to think logically about them or even balance them.

Some people confuse religiosity with obsessive acts, because it is a disciplined lifestyle and contains a good number of rules, guidelines, and rituals that must be performed in specific ways and in a specific context.

But it is very important here to note the fundamental difference between discipline and rules on the one hand and obsessive-compulsive disorder on the other.

Although the extreme limit of discipline and rules may turn into obsessiveness (since all mental disorders have their roots in human nature), this does not equate the two things (3) (4).

On the other hand, it is important to note that most pathological obsessions (including religious ones) cause overwhelming negative feelings in the person, and continuous anxiety, and that one of the conditions for their diagnosis is that they are strange and unacceptable culturally, socially and religiously.

For example, repetitive devotional acts after which a person feels content and happy do not fall under the definition of waswaas (such as Muslims saying “I ask forgiveness of God” or repeatedly mentioning God).

Religious obsessiveness does not mean a lot of prayer or worship, but rather a specific problematic pattern of devotional behavior or thinking related to religion, and often it is in clear contradiction with the purposes of religion, and a cause of personal suffering for the person.

It is important to understand the previous ideas, because the intersection of religiosity with obsessive-compulsive disorder (for example, in a religious person who suffers from it) does not mean the merging of the “religious” and “psychological” areas, and this is what many Muslim jurists understood since ancient times, as we will mention later, so they knew that the problem at that time In obsessive-compulsive disorder as a psychological condition, not in abstract devotional behavior per se.

Why do I suffer from religious obsessions and is it a psychological problem?

We can answer this question by asking the following question: Can religion itself be the cause of religious doubts and obsessive compulsions?

Well, the increased incidence of obsessive-compulsive disorder among religious people compared to non-religious people is a controversial topic in psychology research, and it has not yet been resolved.

Some studies indicate an increase in it, while others deny that (5)(6)(7)(8).

On the other hand, we find in the different religions theoretical evidence of the interest of religion in deterring man from spinning in the cycle of obsessive and compulsive acts when they occur, and informing him of their evil and conflict with the purpose of religion.

Several studies have found that obsessive-compulsive disorder, if it occurs, takes a form that is compatible with the form of human life or behavior. If the person is religious, the chances of the obsessive being religious increase.

This is similar to what happens in patients with schizophrenia in the relationship of delusions to their cultural and social background.

There are also studies that have shown that the symptoms are more severe in religious people than others in the event of obsessive-compulsive disorder and the comparison between the two groups, and there are intermediate factors that researchers seek to study in these comparisons (9) (10) (11).

As for the prevalence rates of obsessive-compulsive disorder, the percentage of people suffering from different types of obsessive-compulsive disorder in particular (which is the most important disorder related to obsessive-compulsive disorder) is approximately 1% of the world’s population (with an increase in the percentage slightly in women compared to men) (12).

While the percentage of religious obsessions as a whole varies between different studies (13).

It also varies according to the country, and increases as the number of religious people increases in a particular country. In Egypt and Saudi Arabia, the rate of religious obsessions is 60% and 50% - approximately – respectively, of the obsessions as a whole, while in America it is 33% at most (14)(15).

You may be wondering: What do Muslim scholars and jurists say about religious obsessions?

In fact, many previous Muslim scholars have drawn attention to the issue of obsessive-compulsive disorder from various aspects, including the psychological, medical, and not only the moral and religious aspects of it.

In the ninth century AD, Abu Zaid al-Balkhi explained the symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder in a very similar way to our modern psychiatric understanding of it (16). With him if it is repeated as a passing and unimportant matter.

On the other hand, other scholars have taken care of the concept of obsessions and elaborated their meaning from a purely religious angle, such as Abu Hamid Al-Ghazali, who defined it in his book “The Revival of Religious Sciences” with blameworthy thoughts (that is, the one who invites evil).

Other books and research, old and recent, dealt with the difference between suspicion and obsession.

Doubt is a hesitation in believing the idea or not, or hesitating to fall into the act or not, so that the motive is almost equal in both directions, and the doubt is for a reason considered logical, and it is often a natural and transitional state that does not take over the human mind and life, while the obsessiveness is always obsessive, and comes Without a valid logical reason, but rather from irrational reasons that the person himself knows to be so, and therefore often complains about them and seeks to change them (17).

It is important to note here that a number of jurists considered severe waswasah as a pathological condition with which a person’s assignment in many matters falls and he does not sin against it as long as he seeks to get rid of it and solve it.

What do I do to get rid of religious obsessions?

Religious obsessions come to the dearest of religious people, that is, their religion;

This is what makes them confused and mixed feelings of shame, shortcoming, sadness and others.

But the solution exists, and there are a number of important practical steps that may help a person to get rid of this problem, including:

• First, try to define the nature and scope of the problem and describe it well

Problem solving always begins with describing it correctly, and defining its area.

Learn more about the meaning and nature of obsessive-compulsive disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder so that you can distinguish it from other phenomena.

Doubt or having a disciplined personality is not like obsessive-compulsive disorder, for example, and obsessive-compulsive disorder is different from persistent obsessive-compulsive disorder, which is not related to a specific period of time.

Therefore, we must first try to describe and define the problem as precisely as possible: what is it?

What is its nature (ideas, tendencies, images, etc.)?

How do you feel about it happening?

Is it related to a behavioral devotional aspect or to an intellectual ideological aspect?

All these questions are an introduction that will make you better able to deal with them.

• Second: Try to trace the time course of doubts and identify the factors that motivate them

It can deepen your understanding of the problem and facilitate its resolution by tracing its time course and understanding when it occurs and how much it takes up your life, time, and effort.

In addition, being aware of the factors that reduce or increase the obsession will make you better able to create the best conditions for avoiding them.

For example, if you feel that they are more present when you are not sleeping well (which is common in obsessions), you will be more careful to sleep better to reduce their occurrence and severity.

• Third: Do not torment yourself with guilt

The main solution that psychotherapy suggests for obsessive-compulsive disorder is the so-called "Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP)" therapy, which is a professional process that the patient cannot always perform on his own, and it contains many details and components that the patient must go through with the therapist It begins with exposure to disturbing obsessions, and then teaches the patient how to deal with them, rationalize them, and not give in to the behavioral and psychological impulses that result from them.

However, the main essence in it, which you can try, is to resist the tendency towards compulsive actions and compensatory behaviors that result after waswaas. compulsive(18).

It is also good not to burden yourself with the burden of guilt, as this is a disease that can afflict any person, no matter what, and from a religious point of view, it is a affliction that may increase your reward when you seek to treat and resist it.

• Fourth: Refer to a doctor or psychiatrist, as well as consult a religious scholar you trust

Many obsessions of all kinds may disappear after a period of time, or their severity and impact on a person may decrease, but in the event that they affect life and significantly disrupt the normal functions of a person, or cause very negative feelings and continuous suffering, and consume human time and effort greatly;

It is necessary to consult a psychological specialist (a doctor or a psychotherapist), as they are the most capable of dealing with these problems in a scientific and systematic way to overcome them as quickly as possible and with the least impact in the long term, and are fully confident in the possibility of treatment.

It is worth noting here that resorting to religious scholars or jurists is something that many specialists and researchers encourage, provided that this scholar or jurist is reliable in the psychological field, because dealing with obsessions is not always easy, and the approach may vary according to the type and severity of obsessiveness.

The scientific therapeutic intervention is not by opposing or challenging religious beliefs or behaviors as a whole, but by cooperating with them and relying on their purposes to rationalize and rationalize these behaviors, ideas and tendencies, in line with the patient’s moral and values ​​system.

Until now, cooperation between religious scholars and specialists in the fields of science and psychiatry is unfortunately still limited, but it has become more common in developed countries when treating religious people or people belonging to a particular religion, due to the specificity of some psychological problems, which require more than one level of intervention to benefit the patient. And understanding the different aspects of his suffering (19)(20)(21).

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